This study assessed the relation between religious involvement and multiple indices of competence in 183 eighth- and ninth-grade Indonesian Muslim adolescents (M = 13.3 years). The authors assessed spirituality and religiosity using both parent and adolescent reports, and social competence and adjustment using multiple measures and data sources. Structural equation modeling analyses revealed that parent and adolescent reports of religiosity and spirituality yielded a single religious involvement latent variable that was related to peer group status, academic achievement, emotional regulation, prosocial behavior, antisocial/problem behavior, internalizing behavior, and self-esteem. The consistency of relations between religious involvement and competence may be in part attributable to the collectivist context of religion in West Java, Indonesia, within which people exhibit strong beliefs in Islam and religion permeates daily life.

This study examines infants' joint attention behavior and language development in a rural village in Nigeria. Participants included 8 younger (1;0 to 1;5, M age = 1;2) and 8 older toddlers (1;7 to 2;7, M age = 2;1). Joint attention behaviors in social interaction contexts were recorded and coded at two time points 6 months apart. Analyses revealed that these toddlers were producing more high level joint attention behaviors than less complex behaviors. In addition, the quality and quantity of behaviors produced by these Nigerian children was similar to those found in other cultures. In analyses of children's noun and verb comprehension and production (in relation to the number of nouns or verbs on a parental checklist), parents reported proportionally more verbs than nouns, perhaps because Ngas has some linguistic characteristics that are similar to languages in which a noun bias is not seen (e.g., Mandarin Chinese). An examination of the interrelations of joint attention and language development revealed that joint attention behaviors were related to both noun and verb development at different times. The set of results is important for understanding the emergence of joint attention in traditional cultures, the comprehension and production of nouns and verbs given the specific linguistic properties of a language, and the importance that early social contexts may have for language development.

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Ambulatory emergency care units are present in many hospitals and accommodate patients who need urgent medical assessment or procedures but do not require inpatient admission to achieve this. This article reports on a project undertaken in the ambulatory care unit at the Royal United Hospital Bath, which introduced a nurse-led paracentesis service with the intention of reducing waiting times and improving the service for patients. To evaluate the effect of the project, patient satisfaction levels and waiting times were measured before and after the introduction of nurse-led paracentesis. The results confirmed a significant reduction in waiting times after the nurse-led intervention was introduced and high levels of satisfaction. The results provide evidence that nurses are acquiring the knowledge and skills required to undertake interventional procedures that improve the patient's experience while contributing to pioneering developments in ambulatory emergency care services.

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